Flexible pocket receptacle



Patented Jan. 3, 1933 WARNER R. BUXTON, F LONGME'AIDOW, MASSACHUSETTSFLEXIBLE POCKET RECEPTACLE Application filed January 2, 1932. Serial No.584,523.

This invention relates to an improved flexible pocket receptacle andmore particularly, to one adapted and intended for carrying anddisplaying an automobile registration ,5 and operators driving license.7

The invention has'for its general object the provision of a receptaclefor the above and analogous purposes, which is of exceedingly simpleandmaterially improved con- 19 struction and which is very convenient touse, whenever required, to display all essential portions of both thelicense and registration without withdrawingeither from the pockets inwhich they are contained.

The invention has for a particular object to provide a device for theabove and analogous purposes which consists of afolder constructed froma one-piece blank of leather or like flexible material, and twocontainers made up of transparent material, such as celluloid or thelike in the form of flattened down tubes. The leather folder and.tubular containers are combined, without stitching orv other fastenings,by slipping both containers over a portion of the folder, whereby theybecome hingedly connected to each other and to the folder. The licenseis slipped endwise into the containers between one side of the leatherfolder and one wall of each container and the registration is slippedendwise into the containers between the other side of the leather folderand the other wall of each container. Each paper, both registration andlicense, is displayed in part in one and in part in the other containerand the two containers naturally swing into a common plane with theiropen ends in alignment so that allthat is necessary to see of each papercan be seen at a glance. v Other objects will appear as the detaileddescription proceeds and will be pointed out in the appended claims. Theinvention will be disclosed with reference to the accompanying drawing,inwhich i Fig. 1 is a View of the leather blank from which the folder ismade;

Figs. 2 and 3 are front and end elevational views of one of the tubulartransparent containers;

I of the completedarticle shown in open and display position Fig. 5is aplan view showing the receptacle closed;and I V Fig. 6 is a fragmentarysectional plan vlew taken on the line 66 of Fig. 4.

Referring to this drawing; the device consists simply of three parts,namely, the leather folder shown separately in Fig. 1, and two. of thetubular transparent containers 0 shown separately, in Fig. 2. Thesethree parts are combined With-out requiring stitching or otherfastenings, in the relationship. shown in Fig. 4 to-form' the completedarticle. The complete device shown in Fig. 4 folds up intothecompactformshown in The folder is simplya one-piece stripof leatherdivided off by lines of fold 6, 7,8 and 9 into four main sections 10,11, 12 and 13 of approximately equal area and asmall fastening flap 14.The opposite-sideedgesof the folder along the sections 12 and 13 are cutout, forming in each a recess 15 bounded by two longitudinally spacedshoulders 16. Openings 17 may be cut through the folder to increasethe'flexibility of the connected 7 parts 12 and 13 along-the line offold 9. The folder has interengagcable snap fastener elements 18 and 19secured thereto, one to section 11 and the other to flap 14.

Each container 20'is constructed of trans parent material, such ascelluloid or the like, in the form of an open-ended, flattened-down tubeand preferably, as shown, from one piece of such material bent up in theform shown in Fig. 3. The container has front and back walls 21 and 22,which are substantially parallel and closely spaced, and shortconnecting side walls 23. The ends of the strip, from which eachcontainer is made, overlap leaving asmall flap 2 1 which may be fastenedto the underlying wall 20 or not, as desired. Since the material issomewhat flexible and resilient, the wall 21 can be bent enough towithdraw its upper end from under flap 24. This flap, being short, willnot bend enough to cause accidental disengagement of the'connected partsand, as a practical matter, the adhesive connection of flap 24 and'wall21 is Fig. 4 is a View tion 12- of the folder and the other in similarrelation with the section .13., If the flaps 241 are not fastened to theunderlying walls 21,

the assembly is facilitated because thewalls.

21 and 22 may then be sprung apart and slipped over the leather-folderafter which theupper end of wall 21 may be sprung in under the flap.The'flaps may be fastened afterwards with adhesive if necessary ordesired, although I prefer to'omit such fastening entirely. It is alsopossible to assemble the parts by slipping the tubular containers, whilein the closed form shown in Fig. 3, endwise over sections 12 and 13, bybending down the small end ears 26 of the leather folder. It will beobvious thatthe constituent parts of the device are of exceedinglysimple construction, susceptible to manufacture by simple methods at lowunit cost. Also, that these parts may be quickly and easily.assembledwithoutrequiringany special skill.

In use, the registrction paper 1 is slipped in place between the leatherfolder and the front walls 21 of the two containers. It lies in part inone and in part in the other container and bridgesthe short spacetherebetween. The'license paper Z is slipped in place between theleather folder and the rear transparent walls 22. Each I paper isdisplayed jointly in the two containers, one being visible through thefront walls and the other through the rear walls, as will be clear fromFig. 6. The containers are large enough so that at least all of theessential portions of the papers Z and 7' are visible and it istherefore unnecessary to remove them from the containers. Fig. 4 showsone position of the device, in which position the reg-istration isdisplayed. The parts may be folded about line 8 so that sections 12 and18 are superposed on sections 10 and 11, respectively. WVith the partsthus positioned, the li cense Z will be displayed. The receptacle isclosed into the form shown in Fig. 5, by first superposing the sections12 and 13 on the. sections 10 and 11, respectively, and then foldingthese superposed parts about the two substantially coincident lines offold 7 and 9. The-folded parts may then be held by bending the flap 14over the wall 11 and engaging the fastener elements 18 and 19.

Viewing the device in another way, it consists of two hingedly connectedtransparent containers and a wrapper. The leather strip, which passesthrough and serves as an ideal means of hingedly connecting thecelluloid containers, is extended far enough beyond one end of one ofthe containers to form an enclosing wrapper for the latter. With the twocontainers superposed one on the other, the remaining exposed portion ofthe leather folder is long enough to be wrapped around the containers tocompletely envelop and enclose the same.

Itis to be noted that the containers 20 are slidable'on the leatherstrip. They can move towardone another fromthe positions shown in Fig 4.The shoulders 16 limit the extent of separating movement and preventaccidental removal of the containers from the leather strip." Theslidability of the container allows the intervening leatherportion,which I serves as a hinge, to be lengthened or shortened as necessary totake care of variations in thickness of the papers carried in thecontainers. It also enables the two containers, when superposed, to lieflatly one against the other in contiguous relation. I

The invention affords a device of simple and very desirable constructionfor carrying, and displaying when' necessary, automobile license andregistration papers. The papers are normally concealed and protected andtherefore carefully preserved. Yet each paper is conveniently accessible'andlreadily displayed in all essential portions without withdrawing itfrom the pocket in which it is contained. The device folds up intothin,flat compact form to fit the pocket In the drawing, particularly in Fig.6, it has been necessary to exaggerate the thickness of the parts tosecure clearness of illustration. Actually the thickness of the fivelayers shown in Fig. 6 would be less than half that shown and need be nomore than one sixteenth of an inch. The construction adopted enables thethickness of the parts to be reduced to a minimum. Overlapping parts areavoided, except for the flaps 24 which are very thin, and a constructionhas been sought for which will enable all the necessary results to beaccomplished and which will nevertheless be small and compact.

The invention has been disclosed herein, in an embodiment at presentpreferred,.for illustrative purposes, but the scope of the invention isdefined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description.

What I claim is:

1. In a device of the class described, a pair of containers eachconstructed of flexible transparent material and in the form of aflattened-down open-ended tube with closely spaced-front and rear walls,and a strip of flexible material passing'through the open ends of bothcontainers between said walls and bridging the space between saidcontainers and serving to hingedly connect them so that they may besuperposed or swung into a common plane, said strip having an extensionbeyond one end of one container of suflicient length to enable it to bewrapped completely around the superposed containers to enclose the same.

2. In a device of the class described, a pair of containers eachconstructed of flexible transparent material and in the form of aflattened-clown open-ended tube with closely spaced front and rearwalls, a strip of'flexible material passing through the open ends ofboth containers between said walls and bridging the space between thecontainers and serving to hingedly connect them so that they may besuperposed or swung into a common plane, said strip having an extensionbeyond one end of one container of suflicient length to enable it to bewrapped completely around the superposed containers to enclose the same,and means for fastening the wrapper extension in its enclosing relationwith the containers.

3. In combination, a leather strip, and a pair of transparent containersslidably mounted for limited longitudinal movement on one end of saidstrip and each encompassing the strip so that a paper to be displayedmay be placed between the strip and the front walls of said containerslying partlyin one and partly in the other and so that another paper maybe similarly placed between the strip and the rear walls of saidcontainers, said containers being hinged to-.

gether by the strip and movable into and out of superposed relation, theother end portion of said strip serving as a wrapper to be wrappedaround the superposed containers for enclosing the same. 7

4. In combination, a leather strip having a recess in each side edgealong a portion of its length to provide a part of less width than theremainder of the strip and having a shoulder at each end of each recess,a pair of transparent containers in the form of flattened-downopen-ended tubes slidably mounted on said part of less width and limitedin their sliding movement by said shoulders, the remainder of said stripbeing of greater length than said part and arranged to be folded aroundthe containers to enclose the same.

5. In combination, a leather strip having a recess in each side edgealong a portion of its length to provide a part of less width than theremainder of the strip and having closely spaced front and back wallsone of which lies flat against one side of the leather strip and theother flat against the other side of said leather strip, said flexibletransparent strip having overlapping ends to detachably hold the same inplace, the remainder of said leather strip being of greater length thansaid part and arranged to be signature,

- WARNER R. BUXTON;

